Method of and sheet for making flat opening books



C, E. GALE `lan. 9, 1934.

'METHOD OF AND SHEET FOR MAKING FLAT OPENING BOKS 3 Sheets-Sheet l Filed Sept. 14 1932 FIIIII.

C. E. GALE Jan. 9, 1934.

METHOD OF AND SHEET FOR MAKING FLAT OPENING BOOKS Filed Sept. 14 1932 3 Sheets-Sheet Jan. 9, 1934. l c. E. GALE 1,942,399

METHOD OF AND SHEET FOR MAKING FLAT OPENING BOOKS Filed sept. 14, 1932 '3 sheets-sheet 3 Patented Jan. 9, 1934 METHOD OF AND SHEET FOR MAKING FLAT OPENING BOOKS Charles E. Gale, Quincy, Mass.-

Application September 14, 1932 Serial No. 633,088

8 Claims.

This invention relates to a novel method of preparing and assembling leaves for use 'in the manufacture of a flat-opening book and to a novel sheet produced by one step of the method.

5 The invention will best be understood by reference to the following description when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings illustrating the novel method and sheet, while its scope will be pointed out more particularly in l the appended claims.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a plan of one face of a sheet resulting from the first step in the method;

Fig. 2 is a plan of the other face of the sheet;

Fig. 3 is a perspective view of one of the scoring blocks used in the preparation of the sheet;` and Fig. 4 is a perspective view illustrating the step of assembling the leaves for binding.

Referring to the drawings and to the method and sheet illustrated therein, there is shown in Figs. l and 2 a sheet of paper 10 comprising a plurality of leaf areas, herein thirty-two, for example, designated for convenience by the numerals 11 to 42 inclusive. As shown, the leaf areas are defined by sets of horizontal and vertical, broken lines, but these lines do not in fact appear upon the sheet and are shown in the drawings merely to indicate the lines along which the sheet is to be cut as one step in the method.

If, as in the present example, the leaves are to; be printed, the printing on the entire face of the sheet is accomplished in one impression by a printing form comprising a plurality of plates locked in a chase in the usual manner, thus to produce printed areas 43 to 74 inclusive, whose outlines are indicated by rectangles shown in dotted lines. The reverse face of the sheet is shown in Fig. 2 with printed areas '75 to 106 inclusive, all of which are printed in one impression by a printing form comprising a plurality of plates locked in a chase in the usual manner.

To produce a at-opening` book, the leaf areas are provided with scored lines 107 to 138 inclusive, each differing in location transversely of its length from the scored lines of other areas. This is conveniently accomplished simultaneously with the printing of the printed areas 43 to 74 inclusive by the use of a set of scoring blocks, one of which is shown in Fig. 3 and designated 139, the same being provided with a sharp V-shaped scoring rule 140, the location of which corresponds with the desired scored line of a given leaf area. The printer, in making up'the form, places in the chase, beside each printing plate, a scoring block parallel with that edge of the plate corresponding to the edge of the printed area, which is to be adjacent to the binding edge of the leaf, thus to weaken the paper and to impart yto it the requisite degree of ilexibility to enable it to bend freely and to allow the book lto be 0. opened flat. It is, of course, understood that each scored line shall be differently and properly located with respect to other lines, so that after the sheet has been printed and scored,l it Will be out by any suitable means into leaves (see 35 Fig. 4) and the leaves assembled for binding, sov that the distances of the scored lines from the binding edges 141 shall increase in inverse ratio to the proximity to the middle plane X--X of the leaf assembly. IThe ends of the scored lines apy'10 pear as a V in the assembly.

For convenience in assembling the leaves after the cutting of the sheet, the difference in location of the scored lines is progressive in a given series and is also progressive from one series to v"( another series. As shown in Fig. 1, for example, the leaf areas 11 to 26, inclusive, are in four series designated A, B, C and D, respectively.

In the series A, the difference in the location of the scored lines is progressive from the leaf area 1l to and including the leaf area 14,r and the progression continues from series A through s eries D, the distances of the scored lines from the adjacent edges of the printed areas diminishing,

or to put it diiferently, the distances of the scored lines from the prospective binding edges increases progressively. 'Ihe several series A, B, C and D are to constitute the frontpart of the book, that is to say,'from the first leaf tothe middle, the number of leaves depending upon the total number of leaves the book is to have. In the case of i i a book having a considerable number of leaves, it may require a whole sheet or even several sheets to produce the required number of leaves from the front to the center of the book.

In the example shown, however, the book is to have thirty-two leaves (sixty-four pages), and the leaf areas for the front part of the book are comprised in the four series A, B, C and D. The leaf areas for the back part of the book are comprised in series E, F, G and I-I, and in this series the progression runs in the opposite direction, so to speak, as to the relative locations of the scored lines. The differences in series A, B, C and D may be likened, for example, toi an ascendingvn progression and the differences in series E, F, G and H to a descending progression. In each progression there is a leaf area having a scored line corresponding in location with the location of the scored line of a leaf area of the other pro- 110 gression. For example, the leaf areas 11 and 42 are alike in respect to the location of their respective scored lines 10'7 and 138.

Thus it is evident that, with these progressions, after the sheet is cut intoy leaves, the assembling of the leaves in the manner shown in Fig. 4 becomes an easy matter because the stacking of the leaves can take place in regular order from leaf to leaf of one series and from one series to another throughoutJ the entire number required for the leaf assembly.

The invention contemplates the possibility of folding the sheet to produce a signature or section instead of cutting the same into separate leaves, but while this may be done withl the sheet by proper location of the scored lines to correspond with the manner of folding, nevertheless, the cutting of the sheet into leaves is preferred because of the greater resulting accuracy in the location of the scored lines in the finished product.

Having thus described the method and one embodiment of the sheet which is produced by one step of the method, but without limiting myself thereto, what I claim Vand desire by Letters Patent to secure is:

1. As a new article of manufacture, a sheet for use in the manufacture of a book, the same coinprising a plurality of leaf areas, each provided with a scored line, the location of which transversely of its length differs from that of the scored lines of other areas.

2. As a new article of manufacture, a sheet for ruse in the manufacture of a book, the same coinprising a series of leaf areas, each provided with a scored line, the location of which transversely of its length differs from that of the scored lines of other areas of the series, the difference being progressive in said series.

3. As a new article of manufacture, a sheet for use in the manufacture of a book, the same comprising a plurality of series of leaf areas, each area being provided with a scored line, the location of which transversely of its length differs from that of the scored lines of the other areas of a plurality of the series, the difference beingprogressive in each series and the progression continuing from one series through another series.

4. As a new article of manufacture, a sheet for use in the manufacture of a book, the same comprising a plurality of leaf areas, each provided with a scored line, the location of which transversely of its length differs from that ofV the scored lines of the other areas, the diiference being progressive according to a predetermined plan, a part of the progression being a decrease of the distance from the line to adjacent side of the leaf area, and a part being an increase of the distance from the line to the adjacent side of the leaf area.

5. As a new article of manufacture, a sheet for use in the manufacture of a book, the same comprising a plurality of leaf areas, each provided with a scored line, the location of which transversely of its length differs from that of the .scored lines of other areas, there being two series of leaf areas, each series being like the other in respect to the location of its scored lines, but one series being reversely arranged with respect to the other.

6. As a new article of manufacture, a sheet for use in the manufacture of a book, the same comprising a plurality of leaf areas, each provided with a scored line, the location of which transversely of its length differs from that of the scored lines of other areas, the differences being,A in two sequences, one comparable with an ascending progression and the other with a descending progression.

7. The art of preparing book-leaves for binding, comprising preparing a sheet by providing the same with a plurality of scored lines located, respectively, within leaf areas which are to become leaves, the lines differing from one another in location transversely of their lengtm in respect to the respective leaf areas, and subse. quently assembling the leaves face to face for 1310 binding, so that the distances of the scored lines from the binding edges shall increase in inverse Vratio to the proximity of the leaves to the middle plane of the leaf assembly.

8. The art of preparing book-leaves for binding, comprising simultaneously printing the leaf areas and scoring each leaf area along a line parallel with one edge of the printed area, the lines differing from one another in location trans. versely of their lengths in respect to the respec- '120 tive leaf areas, cutting the sheet into leaves, each having a printed area and a scored line, and co1- lating the leaves for binding, so that the distances of the scored lines from the binding edges. shall increase in inverse ratio to the proximity of 525 the leaves to the middle plane of the assembly.

CHARLES E. GAin. 

